Takedown Teague (Caged #1)(77)

The first few structures we passed were nothing more than shacks made out of plywood and a few nails. There was an old guy sitting out front of one of them, cooking fish on a charcoal grill. There were broken bicycles, part of a car, and a ton of other junk all over the yard around the shack. Weeds growing about waist height surrounded the whole place. It was a stark contrast to the area Tria’s father’s house had been on the other side of the island.

As we traveled farther down the road, Tria slowed to take a sharp turn. There was a line of RVs stacked up next to each other, overlooking the water. They were actually more run-down than the shabby shelters we had just passed. Farther from the water, there were half a dozen small houses, which weren’t in too bad a shape, though there was a still a decent amount of junk lying around them. Most of them needed a good paint job and new gutters, too.

We stopped at the last RV site in the row. The structure itself was about the strangest I had ever seen. It was actually two RVs set up right next to each other and apparently fused together. A wooden porch had been attached to the front of it. There were a few pots, which looked like they probably had some flowers in them in the warmer months, on the slanted stairs.

Tria and I got off the bike, and Tria pushed it a little closer to the porch as the front door flew open, and a tall, lanky woman with short, stringy black hair rushed out.

“Demmy!” she cried as she jumped over the two steps of the porch and ran over to Tria. They hugged immediately as I stood there awkwardly. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad I’m here, too,” Tria said with a pinched smile. “It feels like it has been forever. Please call me Tria, though.”

“Sorry. I forgot.” Tria’s friend looked over at me. “Who’s this?”

Tria looked quickly between us before making introductions.

“Liam, this is Nikki,” she said. “She’s my best friend ever. Nikki, this is Liam. My…um…my boyfriend.”

Nikki’s eyes widened as she looked up at me and slowly reached out her hand. I returned the gesture and shook her hand quickly.

“You didn’t mention him on the phone,” Nikki said.

“Well, Keith was there with you,” Tria said with a shrug. I glared over at her because she hadn’t mentioned him being on the phone at all. “He and Liam don’t exactly get along.”

I barked out a laugh.

“So Keith was right.” A deep voice came from the porch. “You have shacked up with some musclehead. I really thought you were better than that, Demmy.”

I immediately moved toward the guy leaning against the doorframe. He was a good five inches shorter than me, with black hair hanging in his dark eyes. Tria stepped up and blocked my way with her hand on my chest, the same way she had months ago when Keith had come to her apartment.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said. Her voice was full of warning. “You told me you weren’t going to do this!”

“I told you I wasn’t going to start anything. He’s starting it.”

“No!”

“He insulted you,” I said under my breath. I balled my hands into fists.

“I will handle Brandon,” Tria said in a lowered voice, “and you will wait for me to get this shit under control, and you will not hit anyone! As a matter of fact, you aren’t even going to say a word until I tell you to! Now shut up, and I’ll let you touch my boobs tonight.”

My mouth dropped open for a moment, but I quickly closed it again. I swallowed hard as I gazed at her and realized she was completely serious. I gripped my hands into fists a couple more times and then released them as I swallowed a second time.

Tria raised an eyebrow at me pointedly.

I was never one to stay quiet, but after that look from Tria, I shut my mouth.





Chapter 21—Challenge the Beliefs


Tria turned back to the couple and quickly introduced us.

“This is Nikki,” she said, “and her husband, Brandon.”

I huffed a short breath out my nose and gave them both a slight nod.

“Brandon and Nikki, this is my boyfriend, Liam. He came with me.”

“What the hell are you doing, Demmy?” Brandon asked with wide eyes. “He can’t stay here!”

“Brandon!” Nikki said as she turned quickly to him. “I asked her to come here and help with the arrangements. It’s not like Liam’s going to be f*cking me tomorrow, so what difference does it make? And call her Tria!”

“You agreed to do it,” Brandon said. “You agreed to all of it.”

“Did I say I was backing out?”

The look on Brandon’s face made me wonder if he didn’t hope she would do just that.

“Maybe we should take this inside,” Tria suggested, and after a bit more grumbling, I followed the rest of them up rickety wooden steps to the front door.

The configuration inside the double-RV was odd to say the least. The back part had been cut away to connect with the door of the second RV. The first part had been gutted to be one room housing a kitchen area and a living space. It was cluttered inside but not dirty. The furniture was worn but not quite falling apart. There were pictures of lighthouses on the walls. Lobster knickknacks adorned most of the flat surfaces, and there were piles of homemade candles on every unoccupied square inch. There were stacks of National Fisherman magazines next to a plastic folding chair that faced the couch and a cardboard box filled with mason jars sat near the door.